In November 1836 the newly-married Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901) was in the first months of a Grand Tour of Europe, honeymooning with his bride (and first cousin) Abigail Breese Phillips (1814-1869). In England they had purchased a “post-chariot” (a horse-drawn carriage used for stage-coaching) and were making their way in a leisurely fashion through Europe, bound for a winter in Italy. On Thanksgiving Day they found themselves in a coaching hotel in Nice (at that time a part of Italy) with a few other “orphaned” American expats also making the Grand Tour. This reminiscence, penned by Abby in Edward’s journal and dated 24 November 1836, shows how the Americans joined together to celebrate their holiday so far away, while pining for family and familiar foods back home in New Haven, in a manner familiar to anyone who has had to celebrate a cherished holiday away from family and friends:
“…Our friends were eating roast turkey & plum pudding.—whereupon my husband and Mr Stearns drew up a proclamation in the name of the Commonwealth of Post-Chariot. The gentlemen then went to ride on horseback, after which at half past three Oclk, about the time, that our dear friends were preparing to go to church, our proclamation was read by Mr Stearns, who also read two psalms appropriate to the occasion, a hymn, and closed by prayer. Dinner was soon placed upon the table, a roast turkey, & afterwards something bearing the name of plum pudding appeared, but this was so strongly flavored with brandy, as to render it quite unfit to be eaten, & I could not but contrast it with sad, homesick feelings with the Hunter’s pudding which I imagined standing in all [p.] its glory on dear Mother’s table, & particularly did all the loved faces seated around it come up to my mind’s eye, we drank the health of all our dear friends, with whom we were in spirit. The evening was occupied in reading & sewing. My dear husband & myself formed new resolutions, determined to make more proficiency in French, read history, sat up talking until eleven.”
The “hunter’s pudding” for which Abby longed was a traditional early American “plum” pudding, found in early American and British cookbooks from the mid-1700s up to the beginning of the 20th century. The recipe referenced in the linked video can be found in The Lady’s Assistant, a copy of which is held in the collections of the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut (view a full-text copy of the 1777 edition in HathiTrust).
The gentlemen present drew up a proclamation of the “Commonwealth of Post-Chariot,” with Edward naming himself “Governor” of their personal commonwealth, and (very generously) appointing Abby as “Lieutenant-Governor.” This document is preserved on a folded sheet inserted inside Edward’s journal (MS 429, Box 5, folder 248):
Commonwealth of Post-Chariot
HIS EXCELLENCY EDWD. E. SALISBURY GOV.
HER HONOR ABBY P. SALISBURY LIEUT. GOV.
A PROCLAMATION
For a day of social thanksgiving and praise
The season of the year having returned when at the close of the harvest and in conformity with the practice of our pious fathers we have been accustomed to observe a day of religious rejoicing, and we being confident that our friends and fellow citizens in our native country have already set apart the present day for this sacred purpose—it has seemed good that we who are now strangers and pilgrims in a foreign land should not be forgetful or negligent of our pious customs but in free indulgence of the best sentiments of our hearts and in sympathy with those whom we love and have left to rejoice together at this time around the firesides and altars of our home, should as far as possible unite with them in the observance of this hallowed festival.—
By advice and consent of Council I do therefore appoint Thursday the twenty fourth day of November, instant, to be observed throughout the Commonwealth as a day of social Thanksgiving and Praise and I request the good people of this Commonwealth to abstain from all employments and … inconsistent with the due observance of the day—particularly they will refrain from all unnecessary travelling by sea or by land, from wearisome sight-seeing and the more wearisome labor of recording their observations—they will spend the day neither in idle … nor in listless repose but in grateful recollection of the favors which they have received during the past season of their existence as a Commonwealth—not unmindful of their preservation from evils which have threatened to overturn and even destroy that structure upon which they depend as being, under God, the palladium of their political support & safety—assembling themselves in their appropriate departments they will recount the blessings they enjoy and the distinguishing priviledges of the land of their birth—recalling to mind their absent friends and cheering each other’s hearts in the exercise of kind affections, of humble trust in a protecting Providence and pleasing anticipations of the future and in the hope of a happy endless life—
While thankfully contemplating the blessings already bestowed upon them and their cheerful prospects they will not fail to implore the aid of that Paternal Power, the source of all enjoyments, that He will continue to protect them from all disasters, from “the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noon-day” [Psalm 91:6], that He will save them from the temptations to which they are exposed in a strange land, that He will guide all their journeyings, improve their minds & hearts by what they witness of the glories of His works and of the beauties of human art—preparing them for increased usefulness and happiness in the future—that He will kindly provide for their daily wants, that He will bestow the blessings of peace, true freedom and pure Christianity upon the people among whom they may yet sojourn—that He will bestow the richest of His favors, temporal & spiritual, upon their far-distant friends—and that He will, in due time, restore them to the pleasures & endearments of their beloved homes.
With these grateful recollections and devout aspirations the good people of this Commonwealth will seasonably gather around their festive board, furnished with the bounties of Providence, the luxuries of this fertile clime of their pilgrimage and with those provisions which shall best remind them of their wonted thanksgiving festival: to gladden each other’s hearts and to cheer one another in the path of life, of virtue, of …, and of heaven.
By His Excellency Edwd.E.Salisbury—Governor
Saul M. Stearns–Secretary
Given at the Council Chamber in Nice this 24th day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty six and in the sixtieth of the independence of the United States of America.
GOD SAVE THE COMMONWEALTH OF POST-CHARIOT
For more on the Puritans and the history of the celebration of Thanksgiving in America (and its importance to devout Congregationalists like Edward & Abby), see this 2015 article by Bruce David Forbes from Religion Dispatches–and a happy Thanksgiving from the Near East Collection of the Yale University Library!